Blanket



G. BERG BLANKET Aug. 29, 1944.

Filed Aug. 12, 1942 1.; oooonboooooao/ooooooooooo Patented Aug. 29, 1944 umrrna STAT-ES]; o1=rics;

. Gustav Berg; 1Glasg0w,-:Scotland, assignor of one-- half -.t Erichow-Beer, Sunnysidefl- Roxburghshire, England ApplicationAuguSt- IZ, 1942, SeriaLNo. 454,538?

InIGreat.Britaimseptember13,1941:

4 Claims.

This invention relates to the manufacture of blankets and like fabrics adapted to insulate warm bodies against external cold, such fabrics being hereinafter referred to as blankets.

The invention consists in a blanket comprising fabric layers of blanket-material which are interconnected in the weaving operation to form between themselves a multiplicity of closed spacious air pockets.

The invention also consists in a blanket comprising two outer fabric layers of blanket-material and an intermediate web of binding material which interweaves with the outer fabric layers at lines so spaced apart that closed spacious air pockets are provided throughout the main area of the blanket.

Examples embodying the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawing, in which: Fig. 1 is a plan of a piece of air-pocketed blanket; Figs. 2 and 3 are sections, drawn to a larger scale than Fig. 1, on the lines 2-2 and 33 respectively in Fig. 1.

outer fabric layers A and B only at the sides of the pockets. These pockets are entirely closed. Figs. 2 and 3 show how the web C floats across the interior of the pockets.

The outer fabric layers A and B are each composed of blanket-material; that is to say, material composed of loose bulky yarn, which generally would be of such a nature that a na surface could be raised on it. The bindin material of which the'intermediate web C is composed is comparatively strong binding yarn woven in under substantial tension. Thus, the binding material tends to hold the pockets open. That is to say, when the finished blanket is removed from the loom on which it is woven and the tension on all of the warps HI, ID and I2 is relaxed, the respective natures of and tensions on the warps l0 and the warps l2 are such that the pockets will form as shown by Fig. 2, and the formation according to Fig. 3 will follow. In other words, the finished blanket has the characteristic that, when it is extended in use (for example by pulling it outwards at its edges) the warps l2 will take the strain and stretch taut across the loose pocket-forming outer layers A, B and will act to space these layers apart in curves or folds from the warps [2, thus forming 5 air pockets. Moreover, as the length of the warps l2 across the pocket span is materially less than that of the warps ll, there will always be a tendency of the pocket-forming materials to maintain the pockets open.

As Fig. 2 shows, the warps l2 are woven to a substantial extent with the outer wefts l l at the places of interconnection between the pockets, so that the warps I2 are securely locked in place and cannot be pulled longitudinally through the blanket interior relative to the outer fabric layers A, B. Thus, the relationship between the layers A, B, C of each pocket remains fixed and so the pocket-opening function of the warps l2 will be maintained unaltered.

In use of a blanket such as described, the air pockets ensure considerable warmth (incomparison with an ordinary blanket woven of the same quantity and quality of blanket material) and the nature of the material comprising the 5 blanket is such that it freely absorbs and transmits sweat to the exterior. The air-insulating action so increases the warmth-preserving action that blankets. of'cheaper material or fewer blankets of higher quality material may be used. In the examples described, the pockets are rhombi c, but they may have any other geometrical form, say triangular or rectangular, or they may be according to any design; and if the design so requires a blanket may have small pockets interspersed amongst spacious air pockets without thereby materially disturbing the insulation qualities of the blanket.

Although particularly adapted for blankets it is obvious the invention can be used in the 40 manufacture of woven rugs, and bed and other woven coverings. r

' I claim.

1. A blanket or like fabric comprising two outer fabric layers each composed of interwoven warps and wefts of loose bulky blanket-material which layers are interconnected by being woven together along intersecting sets of lines forming between said layers a multiplicity of pockets, in

.combination with an intermediate layer consisting solely of warps of binding-yarn material which are substantially tensioned in comparison with said interwoven warps and wefts and which interweave with the wefts of both of said outer layers at said lines of intersection and which when the blanket is extended take the strain and Wefts of the outer layers to lock said intermediate-layer warps in each packet against relative longitudinal displacement.

3. A blanket or like fabric comprising outer fabric layers of loose bulky blanket-material which layers are interconnected by being woven together along intersecting sets of lines forming between said layers a multiplicity of pockets,

in combination with an intermediate layer consisting solely of warps of binding-yarn material which interweave with said outer layers at said lines of intersection and which when the blanket is extended stretch taut across the loose pocketforming outer layers, said intermediate-layer warps serving to pull towards one another the lines of intersection at opposite sides of each of said pockets in order to urge apart the outer layers between said lines and provide air pockets.

4. A blanket or like fabric as defined by claim 3 in which, so as to maintain the relative tautness and looseness of the intermediate layer and outer layers respectively, said intermediate-layer warps interweave sufficiently with said outer layers at the lines of intersection to lock said intermediate-layer warps against relative longitudinal displacement.

GUSTAV BERG. 

